The Climate Change Authority could complicate the government’s review of the renewable energy target (RET) when it releases a report next week that is likely to recommend a toughening of the country’s emissions reduction target.

The CCA, which the government has pledged to abolish, has a legislative requirement to conduct a review of progress in achieving the target of reducing carbon emissions by 5 per cent of 2000 levels by 2020.

With the legislation to abolish it stuck in the Labor-Greens dominated upper house, the CCA will publish its final review of the target next Friday.

A draft report published last year said the current 5 per cent target was not enough and suggested it be tripled to 15 per cent as a minimum.

The CCA’s findings could throw a spanner in the works of the government’s RET review, which will investigate whether the scheme is still appropriate and could lead to a recommendation it be abolished.

According to research firm Frontier Economics, the RET would account for up to 96 per cent of electricity sector abatement to 2025 if the carbon tax continued in its current form.

Dick Warburton, the head of the RET review, on Tuesday defended his views on climate change and said they would not influence his approach.

Mr Warburton, who as head of Manufacturing Australia lobbied against the carbon tax, stepped back from comments made in 2011 declaring himself to be a climate change sceptic.

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“I am not a denier, nor a sceptic of climate change per se. I am sceptical of the claims that man-made carbon dioxide is the major cause of global warming. I’m not a denier of that, but I am sceptical of that claim," Mr Warburton said.

“I will be treating this with a completely open mind, it’s got a lot of aspects to it. It’s got aspects to do with economics, on the impact on electricity prices, there’s costs and benefits, so there are a number of issues that need to be reviewed. Before we come to a conclusion I need to ensure we have a complete consultation process."

The other members of the review panel, economist Brian Fisher, former Verve Energy chief Shirley In’t Veld and Australian Energy Market Operator chief executive Matt Zema were unable to be reached for comment on Tuesday.

A report prepared for the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association in 2012 by Mr Fisher’s economics consultancy said the RET would cost the economy $3.5 billion when implemented alongside the carbon tax.

“The RET is a prescriptive technological mandate that requires renewable generation facilities to be commissioned, irrespective of whether lower cost alternatives [such as gas technologies] are available to meet the emissions objective," the report reads.

“This is in contrast to a market-based carbon price mechanism, which supports economy-wide least-cost abatement. It is therefore more efficient and less economically damaging to employ a pure ETS policy strategy to achieve a given level of emissions abatement than it is to adopt a combined [ETS and RET] policy approach."